Runaway truck flattens vehicle in Utah

Utah Highway Patrol troopers Mark Johnson, left, and Doug Whitlock inspect a trailer that crushed a vehicle before hitting a home in Bountiful, Utah on Thursday. Photo by: AP Photo/Standard-Examiner, Nick Short

The Associated Press

September 6, 2013 11:12:05 AM

BOUNTIFUL, Utah -- A red vehicle sitting in a Bountiful driveway was flattened Thursday morning after it was hit by a runaway semitrailer carrying 45 tons of sand.

Nobody was injured in the crash that happened a little before 7 a.m. Thursday, but the front of a home was wrecked and the car crushed.

The truck driver had been hauling a full load of sand up an incline on the way to Bountiful Ridge Golf Course when he attempted to downshift, according to Bountiful police Sgt. Andrew Bryson. He couldn't get the vehicle in gear, and the brakes went out when he tried to stop it, police said.

The heavy semitrailer rolled backward for about half a city block, burst through a retaining wall and smashed the car before it finally came to a stop partway inside a home.

Bryson said the residents of the home were eating breakfast in another part of the house. They were not injured.

But the red car -- which was waiting for pickup by a new owner who had purchased it a day earlier -- was destroyed.

The truck driver had proper permits for carrying the heavy load and police didn't plan to cite him, although an investigation is ongoing.

"It looks like a gross mechanical failure," Bryson said.

He added that it's fortunate no other cars or people were in the truck's path. The street is close to a Mormon temple and a school.